Film Jargon

These are phrases I probably would not know if I was not married to Film Man:

1. Character Arc: This is the change a character goes through from the beginning of the film to the end. Most often, he is better at the end then when he began, but sometimes he ends up worse. In a bad film, the character learns nothing from his journey. No arc. Not good.

2. Rhyming: This is a nifty filmmaker trick. A piece of dialogue, or character action, or situation, etc, shown toward the beginning of a film is repeated in the end, either the same way, or similarly. Usually it shows how our hero has changed: in the beginning, he couldn’t catch the cat; in the end, he can. But it also can be used to show the continuity of the world and how some things never change: the heroine’s boyfriend runs over the garbage cans in the beginning and still takes them out in the end. If you keep alert, you will find these little bits of repeated business all over.

3. Three-Act Structure: Many movies are set up in three acts: the first, to introduce our characters, give exposition, and establish the conflict; the second, to increase the conflict, and complicate the story, throwing more obstacles in our poor heroine’s way; and the third, to bring all the problems to a climax, resolve the conflict, and bring the story to some sort of satisfying close. Sometimes, you can practically see the cards introducing each act; sometimes it’s a little more obscure. And many movies ignore it completely.

4. Subtext: This is all the stuff that’s going on under the dialogue. A good screenwriter knows he doesn’t have to put everything on the page; subtlety produces a much stronger reaction. Say we know that Sue loves Bob. When Bob asks Sue to introduce him to her best friend, Sue can say, “But Bob, I’m the one for you! I’ve always loved you!” OR she can say, “Sure, Bob, meet me after school and I’ll bring Jill.” Then our hearts will just break for poor Sue. There’s always more power in what is NOT being said.